My word! January has been a whirlwind, a waiver, a wail, a wonder, a while, a whistle, a way into a new place..
I’m no longer in my little studio, which served its purpose, but with my wandering spirit tempting me elsewhere, I’m now living just outside of London. No set studio space, for now, but a camera firm in my palms, always looking, always absorbing.
I’ve been photographing a few artists, which has been very energising in this otherwise bleak winter months. Opening our minds and senses to art is such a soother to the soul, don’t ya think?
A highlight was meeting with Qianyang Kong, a textile artist who recently graduated from RCA. Meeting in her warehouse studio, we climbed on a cold January morning to the top floor. Qianyang took the key and revealed an installation she’s been working on. Things were verbally minimal between us, allowing the work to be more present, to be louder.
[more photos to be released at a later date]
In truth, I don’t always engage with installations; they can leave me a bit detached. Through exploring Qianyang’s work though, I understood a lot about…
Fragility
Concrete
Juxtaposition
Tenderness
Relations
Purple
Stretching
Which is very hard to explain
Unless you see it
Before I left, Qianyang mentioned a potential title for the installation. The moon has been present in all our interactions.
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I’ve been writing backwards quite a bit. Turns out it’s not that tricky. I draw my “y” letters back to front anyway. There’s no big theory or meaning behind it all. Absolutely recommend for anyone wanting to slow down thoughts. I think I write my thoughts most clearly when writing backwards. As synchronicity would have it, Patti has also been exploring this. Have a look if you feel like drifting down a dreamy rabbit hole.
Back to the camera - I’ve also been having fun shooting more editorial work. It’s been a while, but this form of shooting is a voice I developed whilst studying at Falmouth. It’s not a specific genre, more a visual exploration. Hair Artist Roman Sys and I stumbled across a pretty cool location in the middle of London, and nabbed a couple of hours to shoot there for a bit, using natural light.
Anima Update - I’m still waiting on the printers to send through the inserts for the Anima books. I’ll then be handfinishing the 100 copies… It’s taking a little longer than anticipated but! the ball is fully in motion… In the meantime I’ve been working on a special edition series. It’s called Persona, which contrasts Anima.
IE. If ANIMA is that driving force from within being expressed outwardly, PERSONA is that external force of character that we dress ourselves in to present to the world.
Drawing inspiration from 5 or 6 people who have influenced me, I dressed myself in different looks. No portrait expresses my anima, though it is my body used. They each show persona, or masks.
No visuals for now, ya nosy things.
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Well, I’m sure there’s a thousand other things I’ll think of to tell you soon. For now it’s over n out. I’m hoping to keep up with you a bit more in the coming weeks; the whole life-work-art-play-sleep balance has been a little, um, out of whack this month.
As my old tutor Andrew Kötting says, ONWEIRDS.